JOMO vs. FOMO

JOMO vs. FOMO? What is that? JOMO is the “Joy of Missing Out” while FOMO is the “Fear of Missing Out”. I stumbled across the term JOMO recently and was intrigued. It hit home with me because I have spent the last 6 months or more being intentional in my time and what I accept and say “yes” to. I’ve become even more critical of how I spend my time in the last 3-4 weeks. You see I have specific goals I want to accomplish and I don’t want to work longer hours to make them happen.

On a recent call with my business coach she said something to me that left a lasting impact on me. She said if I wanted to accomplish the goals that I told her about then I was going to have to get super focused with my time and it would piss many people off. She said that the average person won’t understand. I heard her and I got it. When doing higher things that you have ever done then you must strip away all those things are are not important or lead to your mission and goal.

Over a year ago I stopped all networking. Now don’t get me wrong, networking is amazing and I love it but it is super time consuming. Building relationships takes time but also what I realized is that many people are very superfical. As long as you are in their presence and they think they can get something from you then they are talking you up but the minute you step away they forget you. This isn’t real relationship building. It is what so many get wrong about networking. But what I discovered is the reason I continued to go to networking events was FOMO. So I stopped and guess what, I didn’t miss out on anything else. Instead, so much time was opened up in my schedule.

How many things are you doing right now because of FOMO? I had to take a real hard look at my life, personal and professional and see where I was experiencing FOMO. Do I really need to attend that event? Do I really need to be part of this group? When you take away the fear of missing out you will discover that there is many things that can go from your busy schedule. I like white space in my schedule. Time for self care. Time to work on my business. Time to spend with my family. Time alone. If I pack it with all the things I think I need to do then there is no room for those things. So now more than ever I am loving this idea of JOMO. I look for things that I can drop out of so I can spend more time on the things I really want to be doing. And let me say there is such freedom in this!

So look at your day or week. In what ways are you packing your schedule with things because you fear missing out?